משברי נזילות במערכת הבנקאית

In a market-based economy, an important role of the financial system is to match lenders and borrowers. Banks serve as financial intermediaries by issuing short-term obligations (deposits) to fund longer-term investments(loans). This maturity mismatch makes them vulnerable to unexpected large withdrawals. In this paper we review the theoretical and empirical literature on bank stability. We first analyze the vulnerability of a single bank to panics and bank runs, and explain why runs are more likely to occur at times of economic slowdown.We discuss the role of short-term debt, such as repo, in bank runs, and explain its role in the 2008 financial crisis and, in particular, in the fall of ״Lehmann Brothers״. Finally, we zoom-out and consider the banking system as a whole,and explain why liquidity crises tend to be correlated, and therefore pose a systemic risk.